Is Nashulai Journeys Right For You?
We understand that travelling halfway across the globe to a place you might not know is a big undertaking. You want to be sure that your journey will be deeply rewarding and full of new experiences. You are also insistent that your journey will bring positive benefits to the local communities, wildlife and environment. But, at the same time, you want to know that you will be safe and comfortable. You want to be certain that the people you are entrusting your journey too are reliable, professional, experienced and dedicated. And that they have an in-depth knowledge built up over decades of the regions you will be travelling too. So, is Nashulai Journeys right for you?
In-depth, Local Knowledge
Each Nashulai Journey has been carefully crafted by travel writer and award-winning photographer Stuart Butler. Stuart has been travelling incessantly since the age of 18 (which was so long ago that he pretty much remembers the wheel being invented…) and much of this time has been spent in East Africa and Ethiopia, the Himalaya and South Asia. Over the years he has authored over a hundred guidebooks for Lonely Planet, Rough Guides and Bradt as well as hiking guidebooks for knifeedge Outdoors, Cicerone and Trailblazer. He writes frequently on travel, the environment and conservation for esteemed international publications such as the BBC, Geographical magazine, Sierra magazine, New York Times, the National newspaper and the i newspaper. Stuart has an extensive network of local contacts and friends in all of the areas where Nashulai Journeys operates and he knows each destination inside out. This deep knowledge of the people, landscapes, history, wildlife and culture of Nashulai Journeys destinations means that you are guaranteed to have a unique, one of a kind experience and that you will return home with a deep understanding of your chosen destination and – we hope – an everlasting love for the communities that hosted you and the landscapes and cultures you explored.
Unique Experiences
We try hard to make sure that each and every Nashulai Journey provides unique experiences. Whether that be learning about conservation in action, or ancestral culture, or women’s empowerment at first hand while visiting the Nashulai Maasai Conservancy; having the once in a lifetime opportunity to spend an entire day with scientists, rangers and a group of chimpanzees (most people only get to do this for an hour); discovering the 12th Century rock hewn churches in Ethiopia with a church deacon as your guid; or meeting nomads and tracing snow leopards in the Himalaya, we’ll give you an experience to cherish.
But, we do ask something of you too. Any Nashulai Journeys client must be willing to have preconceptions shattered and be open to experiencing new sights, sounds, smells and tastes. And, although we put great emphasis on your comfort, you must also be prepared to get mucky. Many (but not all) of our journeys involve some degree of walking and perhaps camping in the bush surrounded by large animals. You will stop to eat and drink in local cafes and restaurants and be encouraged to become a participant – rather than a mere witness – to local life and culture. For some people this will be exhilarating, but some people may prefer to stick closer to the comfort zone. If this last one is you then a Nashulai Journeys is probably not for you.
Putting Community and Environment First
A guiding principal of Nashulai Journeys is that we want our journeys to bring a net positive impact to our host communities, the environment they live in and the wildlife they live alongside. We do this in a number of ways. We tailor our journeys to ensure minimal environmental and social impact. Wherever possible we use locally run small businesses and, ideally, ones managed as a community initiative, by the community and for the benefit of community and environment. We ensure you get a deep understanding of local cultures and wildlife – understanding what you’re experiencing ensures mutual respect. We avoid exploitive tourist sights and developments. And, most importantly, every Nashulai Journeys client pays a significant conservation and community development fee. This fee is built into your overall tour cost. In East Africa it’s a set US$100 per person, per day. Elsewhere, the fee is calculated as an overall percentage of 20% of your total tour cost (in both cases children pay a lesser amount). This money does not come to Nashulai Journeys as profit. Instead, every dollar of it goes toward carefully selected local conservation and community development projects. These vary from conservancy and protected area fees, paying for rangers, supporting community projects such as women’s empowerment projects, river clean-ups, reforestation (native trees only), education and health projects and supporting scientists and conservationists in the field. Please ask us for more information on where your money will go.
This conservation and community development fee means that Nashulai Journeys is not the cheapest tour company, but if giving back to host communities is important to you then Nashulai Journeys ensures your great adventure is also of great benefit to local people and wildlife.
Is Nashulai Journeys a Budget Travel Company?
We would love it if everyone could experience the vast open spaces and incredible wildlife found in many of the places that we operate. However, conservation and community development doesn’t come cheap and because we want to ensure that our presence brings positive financial, social and environmental benefits to our host communities we don’t hide the fact that our journeys are not really aimed at budget travellers. That said, some of our journeys do try to accommodate the needs of those on a tighter budget. For example see our Budget Community Safari which is focused in and around our Nashulai Maasai Conservancy in southern Kenya.
Although, we are not a budget travel company we are also not extreme high end and we do not charge as such. We do not believe in the pampered super exclusive safaris and tours that predominate in so many parts of East Africa. Our reason for this is because we believe that a tour like this results in a fake, Hollywood style experience in which the client lives in a bubble safely sheltered from the real life of a destination. Yes, you will return home with some glorious pictures of scenery and animals, but you won’t be able to say that you’ve really seen or experienced a country in any sort of depth. And that’s not what Nashulai Journeys is about.
How Fit Do you Have to be to Join A Nashulai Journey?
This totally depends on the kind of journey you want. And we are happy to advise you. We welcome people of all ages, from early childhood to octogenarians– and above! Our transport varies from traditional safari vehicles in Kenya and Tanzania to walking shoes for the grasslands. Some of our journeys do entail a certain amount of hiking. Sometimes these are just short and gentle half-day walks; at other times they can involve fairly demanding, multi-day hikes at altitude. A long, high altitude hike through the Himalaya obviously requires a much higher level of fitness than a wildlife focused safari in Nashulai Maasai Conservancy.
We include walking and hiking because we believe that seeing a country on foot is the best way to experience it: walking puts you in closer contact with the environment. It allows you to see, smell, touch, hear and, sometimes even taste, the destination in a way that is simply not possible if you travel everywhere by vehicle. Walking also brings you into much closer contact with the people who live in the area and opens up unexpected opportunities and invitations.
Essentially then, the simple answer as to how fit you have to be depends entirely on the journey chosen. In many cases though we can tailor the level of walking to your ability or that of other members of your party.
Does Nashulai Journeys offer tailormade trips?
Yes, we do. Within our regions of expertise we can tailor any kind of tour of any duration so long as it sticks close to our requirements of supporting community and environment. Please contact us about tailoring a journey specifically to your requirements.
Otherwise, we offer a range of carefully crafted journeys of varying duration and encompassing a wide range of activities and experiences. These journeys can be booked by any number of people within your party and can be arranged for whatever dates suit you.
We also offer a small number of set departure journeys in which you will be travelling with a small group of other people. Mostly these journeys are led by a specialist guide and focus on a topic of specific interest (such as bird-watching). These are especially interesting to single travellers or couples who prefer to travel in the company of a bigger group.
Is Nashulai Journeys suitable for families?
Yes! Very much so. Today’s children are the future guardians of the environment and we actively encourage family travel and we put on special activities for children (tracking wild animals, meeting the local children, crafting bows and arrows, milking livestock, school visits, taking plaster casts of animal footprints etc). We have travelled widely around East Africa and South Asia with our own children from when they were tiny babies up to today when they are less tiny teens.